On Bookchin’s Social Ecology and its Contributions to Social Movements
– For Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, March 2008 Murray Bookchin was a leading theoretical progenitor of the many currents of left ecological thought and action that emerged from the 1960s, and his voluminous and many-faceted work has continued to influence theorists and activists to this day. Marcel van der Linden of the International Institute of Social […]
Toward a New Agenda for Climate Justice
For Synthesis/Regeneration Spring 2008 With all the fanfare that usually accompanies such gatherings, delegates to last December’s UN climate talks on the Indonesian island of Bali returned to their home countries declaring victory. Despite the continued obstructionism of the US delegation, the negotiators reached a mild consensus for continued negotiations on reducing emissions of greenhouse […]
Global Warming and the Struggle for Justice
– For Z Magazine, January 2008 If 2006 was the year that the “inconvenient truth” of global climate disruption made its way into the popular consciousness—and sparked a huge new wave of green products and corporate greenwashing—then hopefully the results of 2007’s revelations about the earth’s rapidly changing climate will prove more substantive and long-lasting. […]
Mass Movement: Genetic Engineering becomes question of Democracy at Massachusetts Town Meetings
(This article was published by Gene Watch, Volume 20 Number 3 May – June 2007. http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/volume20.html) Since the year 2000, in many parts of New England — especially Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts — there has been renewed interest in bringing resolutions to town meeting on a range of national and global issues. Measures concerning the […]
Taking it to the Streets: Challenging Biotech PR
– For GeneWatch, Spring ‘07 Since 1999, activists across North America have created comprehensive educational events, colorful parades, and determined oppositional media campaigns in response to the annual conventions of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). BIO is the world’s largest biotech lobbying organization. Their annual conventions have grown in recent years to bring nearly 20,000 […]
The New Energy Debates
– For Z Magazine, January 2007 One of the most pressing issues facing us all, including the new Democratic-controlled Congress, is what to do about energy policy and climate change. With sweeping changes in the leadership of key congressional committees, and heightened public concerns about the consequences of disruptive climate shifts, the time appears ripe […]
The Real Scoop on Biofuels
Green Energy: Panacea or Just the Latest Hype? You can hardly open up a major newspaper or national magazine these days without encountering the latest hype about biofuels, and how they’re going to save oil, reduce pollution and prevent climate change. Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems’ Vinod Khosla, and other major venture capitalists are investing millions […]
Mythologizing Kosovo: A Reply to Peter Hudis
[The following three articles – “Mythologizing Kosovo,” “Selective Indignation: Achilles Heel of the Left,” and “Viewing the Balkans from a Distance” – were written in 2000 and 2001 as part of an exchange with Marxist-Humanist author Peter Hudis. The exchange was supposed to appear in a collection of left debates on Kosovo edited by my […]
Selective Indignation: Achilles Heel of the Left
Reply to Peter Hudis Peter Hudis is no longer sure where he stands. At first he demanded that leftists everywhere actively support the Kosovo Liberation Army, the foremost expression of contemporary pan-Albanian nationalism. Now he tells us that “nowhere in my essay did I express support for “Albanian nationalism” or indeed for any kind of […]
Viewing the Balkans from a Distance
Since I have already taken up too much space in this exchange, I will keep my concluding remarks brief. I have tried at great length to make my position clear to Peter Hudis, and have conspicuously failed in this effort. I have also tried everything I could think of to get Hudis to examine the […]
